Keeping it Small

The garage sales have been sparse around here probably mainly due to the constant 100+ degree weather. With Frankie still waiting for papers to go through on his "short" sale house purchase, we are definitely on overload here so I've been trying to limit myself to small and/or practical (ha) items. This weekend I did buy a chest of drawers (what did I just say about small??) but otherwise I have only found a few random odds and ends.

 

a Lucite perfume with a carved out flower in the middle. 

and a tacky souvenir compact. Both of which will look cute on my vintage guest room dresser...whenever I get that room set up!

Yesterday my mom bought a bag of minis and for some reason?? had no interest in keeping this little guy.

Why yes, it is a teeny deer super glued to a wood base with a hand typed label and to top it off it is also a pin! Just looking at this, I would want to date it maybe from the 1970's but upon further inspection:

1990?? I don't know why I am shocked. Thinking back, the typewriter was still being used in our home at this time and I'm pretty sure I have seen these deer still available at Hobby Lobby.

Just to let Jean know, wherever she may be, I will be enjoying her deer pin and perhaps I may even find an occasion to wear it. It looks like a good conversation piece to me!

Me? Choosing to install Carpet?

I really like wood floors, especially old wood floors so I'm not really into the whole wall to wall carpet thing but I am making an exception for the nursery. I obviously shouldn't be staining things at the moment not to mention the time constraint. The floors are soft pine so no easy drum sanding. Plus this room is above the only somewhat enclosed front porch so any added insulation is a bonus.

These are the floors which will be waiting for me if I ever "need" a project in the future and/when the carpet gets too gross for me.

The last time I picked out carpeting I was 6 and the carpet was pink so I had no clue what went into the process. I pondered over samples for a week, picked out one for the room, a cheaper coordinating one for the closet and went back to the carpet store. I asked if they had any remnants thinking I could find an even cheaper piece for the closet and the salesman responded by saying they would have someone come out and measure so I would know what size of remnant I should find. OK, sounds good. Mark and I went back after the measuring guy came and the salesman told us the size/sizes of remnants we would need. We both continued to stare blankly at him before he realized we did not know where their remnant collection was. He chuckled a little and led us back to the warehouse where we discovered the place was lined with 1000's of remnants. Whoa, OK, I was expecting 20 of odd sizes/colors. We found a remnant which fit both the closet AND bedroom almost exactly AND it was the right color. I definitely wasted my time wandering around the showroom floor feeling up carpet samples but now I know.

 

Cammie says "thanks guys for the carpet in my room, I really love it!"

Amazing Plaster Washers

Room remodeling goes a lot faster with no putsy plumbing or electrical work. These are the before shots of the nursery (complete with Frankie's stuff still in the middle). I swear I have some of the other side of the room but my photo files are all unorganized after the camera fiasco. They get the point across.

and the closet.

The insulation plugs are all still obvious, paint from 1943 in the closet, slightly newer in the bedroom and the gross mismatched carpet seen here. Definitely NOT a cute or even usable nursery.

The biggest dilemna was the slightly wiggly plaster on the ceiling. The plaster keys had pulled away from the lathing in several spots from moisture (the roof had been in disrepair at least once in the house's lifetime), settling and just because it is 100 years old. My dad's plan was to knock down the loose areas, which included most anything that was at an angle. Ugh, what a mess and a lot of work! There were only a few old and somewhat repaired cracks in those areas plus nothing we replace it with will ever be as good as that 100 year old plaster so I felt it a shame to knock it all down. There had to be SOMETHING easy out there to help us with this problem and with a little Google search I found these glorious objects known as plaster washers.

 Everything I read about them said I wouldn't be able to find them at the hardware store. But surely the Ace down the block has them? With all of these old houses in the neighborhood, it seems like something they should have. Everyone was correct. We got strange looks for asking and one guy had to look them up online to see if they did exist. He said they sounded pretty nifty but they didn't have any. Thank goodness for the internet. A quick trip to Amazon and they were at my doorstep less than a week later.
They supposedly will hold when just screwed to the lathing but since our plaster wasn't ridiculously loose or cracked into tiny sections my dad searched down the studs and screwed most of the washers into those. After about 15 minutes the ceiling was just as secure, if not more so, than it was 100 years ago. As I said, our ceiling was not horrible so I can't vouch for how they would work on super loose plaster but they worked fantastically well here.  For now anyways!!

  

 Here are some in action on the wall in the closet. They went in so fast I left the room to work on another project, came back and my dad had started plastering over them already! 

Some partially plastered washers on the ceiling. 

Whew! Dilemma solved and a lot of extra work and mess avoided!

My family of Billys

What other backed up blog stories were trapped on my old cameras? I thought I had the USB cords tucked in with the old cameras but no such luck. I'm not sure what these USB cords go with or where my old camera cords are and the only way to get to my pictures was via Mark's computer and then onto a USB drive. Needless to say I was too lazy. I hadn't used one of my cards for years and found zoo pictures and all kinds of weird (uninteresting) things on it.

Yes, that is a trolley parked next to my car at my old pre-married life apartment. I guess I was entertained by this scene enough to take a photo.

Anyways, back to Billy. I did mention my Ikea haul briefly...months ago.

The crib still isn't put together yet but my Billys sure are!

This is my troll corner previously with my single lonely Billy and a couple of wimpy Target specials plus other odds and ends. 

Another angle. 

Tadaa! Three new Billys! It almost looks less impressive though definitely more organized. Unfortunately, I have to open the closet door or else my fourth one would also fit which leads to where did the old Billy go with the fancy doors?
I was going to buy matching doors for each Billy but, of course, they discontinued my glass doors! This was traumatic to say the least so I lost all train of thought and accidentally bought one too many Billys forgetting I couldn't turn the corner with them because (in some people's minds) getting to the light switch is more important than troll display space?

 I measured around and found I could replace this stumpy little bookcase with...

 A tall Billy and fill it with lots of stuff!! 

Most? Some? of my Dream Pet/Dream Pet wannabe collection got to escape the confines of their box in my closet. 

Also, what is this?

Yes, a shelf with Steiffs? (and a few odds and ends) so I actually do have a collection with some value? Hmm, that is unusual for me. I'm not sure how it happened. I will say I have had that Ty beanie bear pre-beanie craze (it was free with purchase at a doll shop) and I believe at some point he was going for several thousand dollars? but for some reason selling it did not cross my mind. I didn't even collect them! I don't know what I was/was not thinking! But now I guess I have the story and maybe $50 if I do decide to part with him.

This little guy is showing just how I feel so it must be close to bed time...9:30 on a Friday night....

New Camera!

I finally picked out a new camera! As you may recall, my old one met (what I thought was) an untimely death though my husband pointed out I had owned it for over 5 years which is pretty good for an electronic device which travels around with me. Five years!? I guess...though my dad still occasionally dusts off his camera from 1969 and it is just like new. *sigh* technology.

I really just wanted the newer model of my Panasonic but reviews revealed they still hadn't dealt with the lens randomly freezing and breaking issue which made me cranky. Yes, even despite the fact it took 5 years to happen on mine. But what if this next one happens only after a year!? Anyways, I fell back to Nikon which I have never had any issues with - going back to my dad's 1969 model.

Yes, I'm sure they have their issues (I don't want to know about them) but this is my sparkly new camera I have been playing with.
I does have all kinds of fun little filters. Most of which I won't use and could easily use photoshop to create but what fun is that!?

 My favorite right now is the color selection. (yes, I know there is a better version on photoshop)

Pet mode is a must for my camera (ignore the background mess) and this one is right on the top dial for easy access.

I am also enjoying the old tyme sepia setting. 

Fish eye is another fun one, once I figure out where to aim. 

It also has all of the usual settings for people like me who want to take pictures of various things but don't know how/don't have the patience to adjust the camera settings i.e. museum, party, dusk, sports.

My dad approved of this camera but made the statement his old film Nikon will still be going strong long after this one.

Finishing Touches

Ack, I have a back log of blog posts going, mainly because I'm still running on a borrowed camera. I cleaned off my memory card today so lets see what I found!

First off I DID get my bathroom 100% back together. I have some fish sitting around still waiting to tell me where they want to live on the walls but otherwise, anyone walking in would never suspect what existed before in this space (except I have to show them before pictures).

In my "condition" I cannot be out spray painting so I had to bribe someone to get my mirror and toilet paper holder sprayed. I love spray painting why doesn't everyone else!?

This was the TP holder which came with the house. It is/was pot metal with an antiqued brass finish (obviously painted white at some point), stamped U.S.A. on the back and has a definite 70's Victorian revival vibe going for it so I decided it was worthy of a place in my bathroom. Umm, yeah, because I am so particular about my bathroom accessories...

Fresh coat of spray paint.

I wasn't sure what I wanted for a mirror but I found this one at Hobby Lobby for a total of $6 so it will hold me over until I find "the one." Of course it had some weird artsy cheap looking antiqued finish so it needed painted. 

A little sanding, some spray paint and it was ready to go! 

Our medicine cabinet is tiny, not to mention on the opposite wall from the sink as you can see in the mirror above so we needed a place to put toothbrushes, lotion and other odds and ends. This wobbly garage sale cupboard should do the trick!

Shelf paper to protect the wood shelves from toothpaste mishaps

 and some textured shelf paper on the glass so I only have to look at cloudy outlines of the clutter inside. Note the coasters on the front feet? The wobbliness was caused by someone cutting off only the front feet about 1/4". The old glass coasters seem to be the exact height needed to counteract this problem so that was an easy fix.

70's Drugs and Organization

this seemed to be the theme of my finds for the weekend. Not that I purchased/used actual drugs and it wasn't even until my family's comments I realized this theme.
First off, I have been casually looking for a "new" canister set. I've almost requested a Fiesta set several times ALMOST forgetting the #1 requirement on my mental list was lack of fragility (I would be eating unsweetened Rice Krispies out of fear of dropping the lid in my early morning stupor)  #2 on my list was it had to be bright and obnoxious (obviously) AND #3 it had to be cheap. Every time I tried to rationalize spending actual money on a canister set I went back to "meh, my current set works just fine"

This is my current set:

It is definitely vintage and looks fine from a distance. 

Close up, the pull tabs are rusty, loose and have scratched the lids plus the copper coloring on the lids is also fading away. I acquired this from my mom's leftover, unwanted auction stash just so my roommates and I had something for our college rental house. 

Introducing my new canisters!

The set is metal with sturdy plastic lids, it is very obnoxious and rang it at $3 so it fit all of my requirements.The bonus is it actually has orange in it so it works with my orange and yellow kitchen. My brother asked if I bought these to organize my drugs. Come on, mushrooms were a popular 70's theme and are not necessarily drug related...are they? I guess my knowledge on the beginnings of the 70's mushroom craze is limited.

Another funky 70's/early 80's find:

My mom: "Are those Poppies? Did you buy a Poppy clock to go with your canister set!?" Darn it! I liked the chunky brown case and the font on the numbers. My intention is to put a more mod and less country-esque scene inside.

No, a tornado did not hit the garage. This is the organization part of the weekend finds. I've been wanting to redo a vintage file cabinet and I finally found one of those (cheap, of course). We also found some good garage shelves and some small filing drawers which will also be fun to redo, once I can spray paint and work with chemicals again.

Finally, I wandered into the garage yesterday and spied this sitting on the floor:

My brother bought this Compact brand vacuum (for himself, drat) and was trying to hide it in the garage because he knew I would want it! The plastic/rubber on the attachments are made with glitter!

Glitter! Ah, unfortunately the camera doesn't quite catch the full beauty of them.I will definitely be trying to convince him I need this for my birthday or Christmas!